Sandra Bright skipped down the hallways. Partly through joy, after all she had been trusted with a task on the same pay grade as the Luminary himself. another reason was pure nostalgia, she had skipped down these very corridors as a child not long after it had been built. Lastly, no one else was here on this sub-level. image was very important, especially for a future leader of whatever they would call themselves. She had some ideas she would run by Cerulean.

This place would be redundant soon. However, it had been the foundation of the Sweetbright success story and that deserved a measure of respect. All the weapons and tech made here became the basis of so much profitable research and development. The best selling products too, Fae killing weapons sold to the Fae. It was a win win for humanity. It tickled her how in a way, they had been selling the Fae their own dead back to them. It was a privilege to see this place through its final hours.

She had hit the facility like a blizzard. Anything of value was now being packed up, equipment was in the process of being salvaged. Cold and efficient. Some of the experiments would need to be destroyed in case they talked. The giant would have to be eradicated for general health and safety. It would not be good for the company image if some of the thing they needed to do got out. Humanity would be thankful and happy one day, it didn’t need to know how the sausage was made.

A golden key card was swiped and the final door opened. Sandra Bright stepped inside the elevator and descended to the lowest floor with the highest security. Stepping out onto the observation platform she gazed upon them. Sweetbright’s stepping stone to power. The collection had grown over the years, added to when production needed to be scaled up. Their purpose was served now. As the better of those things, she cold show them all one final mercy.

“You are going to regret drinking those” Said John Barrington.

Myles was three coffees deep. All big with Italian sounding names. He took a sip from his forth and found comfort in the warm bitterness. Myles was in a bad mood and had been for the last thirty minutes or so.

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, right now I need coffee.”

“I thought you hated commercial coffee”

“I hate paying for commercial coffee, since I made other John buy them it’s fine.”

The group had parked up at a motorway services a few miles from the black site and had done a few coffee runs while they waited. Myles didn’t exactly know what the plan was, being further from the chain of command than a politician is from the moral high ground. But common sense dictated waiting right outside the gates for the main force to rock up would be counter productive regardless of how skeletal the staff were. With time to kill waiting, Myles had checked his map location… then checked again, then checked the route taken to arrive at their current position. This had caused the bad mood.

“John, it strikes me that this mysterious black site in the middle of nowhere is actually conveniently just outside of a populated town on an industrial estate.”

“Yes young Myles.”

“Two towns over from where we started.”

“Yes young Myles.”

“We drove for hours… through tiny little roads. Some of which you could barely squeeze a horse through. We saw abandoned farms, abandoned petrol stations, my arse went numb. My giant cats arse wasn’t numb and it farted frequently. Do you know what meaty cat farts feel like point blank John, Because I do.”

“Calm down I had some very good reasons.”

Myles waited patiently, his eyes locked on John Barrington.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Oh, you actually want to hear them… okay then. first, getting jumped by a horde of fae while on a covert operation is just asking for paperwork to happen and John Barrington does not do paperwork. So we took a scenic route to give them time to gather and we could hit them all in one place. second we all needed a bit of a top-up, you more than most as even with your weird bottomless inventory you manage to somehow enter starvation mode early. But we all got a side benefit since artefacts don’t have the same digestion time slash capacity locks on them.”

“Alright, those are good reasons… Actually why isn’t Zara and the others here waiting for us since it’s bugger all distance from where we started.”

“Thats reasons three. I wanted to mess with Maya for tracking me… I still don’t know how she does it… might have something to do with all the neoprene gloves she owns… Speak of the devil and she arrives.”

The large standard issue Community vehicle pulled up a short distance from the Morris Minor. An angry Indian woman jumped out. stomped over to John Barrington and kicked him in the shin.

“What was that for?”

“You know what it was for. This is why we never worked as a couple, your immature refusal to be tracked properly.” Dr Singh seethed.

“I had no idea you were tracking me, I just needed a chance to talk with young Myles.”

In that moment Myles Endeavour promised himself to never get into a game of cards with John Barrington. Old Maid, out. Top Trumps, out. Wizzy Wizzy Wee, out. Most of all, he would absolutely not entertain Poker, that was right out.

“Don’t you lie to me John Barrington! Dyna sweetie, tell me what your father was up to?”

“Nope. Staying out of this one.” Said Dyna.

“Let it go Maya, it worked out for the best.” Said Zara who had walked over to join the fun. “I know you might be feeling a bit salty but think of the good that came from it, our getting lost in the backroads let us find the crime scene.

“Crime Scene?” Myles asked.

“We were able to hand it over to the proper authorities and hopefully get some justice done.”

“Sounds ominous, what happened?”

“Someone killed a sex worker then posed her body on the toilet in an abandoned petrol station. The sick bastard made it look like she was reading the Wall Street journal… The Readers Wives of finance journalism. I think we might be looking at a serial killer. But it’s out of our hands now the police will be all over it.”

“That poor woman, I hope they find the person responsible.”

The other Trigger Users gave Myles the side eye. In that moment they collectively decided to never play Myles at cards. Snap, out. Earl of coventry, out. Bugger the Hedgehog, out. Poker would be entirely off the table.

Maya Singh coughed for attention. Loudly, and increasing in volume until the remaining members of her team had wondered over.

“Now you are all gathered here at my behest, I, the mission commander, will give you the plans and lay out orders.”

“I could have sworn Debs was the leader.” Said Myles.

“I could have sworn I was the leader.” Said Debs.

“If you want to get all official, like what was actually passed down the chain of command or talk about who was told to stay in their lane for once then maybe you could argue Debs is the leader. You could also argue Rusty is the leader. But since I know something you all don’t, right now I’m the leader.”

“And what exactly don’t we know Maya.” Said John Barrington.

“Multiple teleport signatures too and from the black site… they are evacuating and doing it quickly. This my friends, is no longer a stealth recon mission. We are going in hot, right now. guns blazing.”

“Yes!” Shouted John Barrington with all too obvious fist pump. “Showtime!”

“Grow up Dad.”

“You mean if we hadn’t spent hours pissing about on country roads we could have been in and out safely?” Said Myles.

“Probably, but then you would have exited right into a furry meat grinder and ended up as soup inside a dead hookers real body.”

“Fair point.”

“Can some explain about the dead hooker? was it like the one we found?” Asked Zara.

“Guns blazing was it. Smashing idea, let’s fucking go!”

The warehouse was huge, clad in battleship grey and every inch of the roof given up to solar panels. A surprisingly positive step for a probably evil corporation. Bold as brass they had strolled in past a noticeable absence of security. Cáit aimed a swift kick at the doorframe creating a loud Klang that echoed through the empty space.

“You dragged me out of the medical tent for this?”

“How did you ever get the police role? Oh yea, nepotism. Look at the big circular metal in the centre.” Said Myles

“These idiots have a steampunk kink, so what.”

“You are absolutely sure we need her right?”

“I’ve told you before Myles, we get a set bonus. friends family, full teams.. each little bit counts to a boost in power.” Said Zara. “And were we have the Full Emergency 999”

Myles looked confused, maybe he was missing a person… maybe John Barrington had a side line in giant robots. He would know soon enough.

“Anyway, I need you to turn you back for a second. I know how much you fancy me and I think if you see how I pick the lock on the big metal door you might be too excited to fight.”

Myles ignored the wry looks from the others.

“I think I’ll be fine, please carry…”

Before Myles finished his sentence a giant robot fist punched through the roof. Then using the hole for purchase pulled most of the roof off. The big metal door in the middle of the warehouse was clearly a high end security measure. A measure built for keeping out normal sized people, maybe even normal sized people with supernatural enhancements. What it was not built to stop however was big bloody axes the size of a small country cottage. The axe buckled the door causing it to fold slightly.. the concrete and supports either side cracking as everything fell to the floor below opening up the facility to the raiding party.

“Alright, that was incredibly exciting.”

Floors Below Sandra Bright’s day had been ruined. Everything had been going smoothly until just that god awful boom out of nowhere and report after report came flooding in. But where there was adversity there was opportunity. Perhaps some of her problems could solve each other. She flicked a button on the control panel in front of her to active the comms.

“Release all the experiments and send the giant to the surface.”